There are no taxes imposed on the income of companies resident in UAE, unless they are involved in oil & gas exporation or production, or they are a branch of a foreign bank. Oil and Gas companies are taxed at 50-55% whilst foreign bank branches are normally taxed at 20% although this may vary dependent on which of the 7 Emirates they are operating in.

However for a company to be resident in UAE it needs to be either 100% owned by Emirati residents or able to prove its property and income is not used for investment purposes.

UAE employers have to pay an Employer pension contribution of 12.5% of the gross salary of any local UAE employees. Foreign workers are exempt from this. Use our UAE Payroll Tax Calculator to work out your employer contributions.

There is no withholding tax in UAE at all. This means that dividends, interest, royalities, technical services, branch remittances, management and professional services are all exempt from withholding tax.

Foreign workers and their employers are exempt from Social Security contributions. For Emirati nationals there is an employee contribution of 5% of gross salary. This is in addition to the 12.5% their employer is contributing.

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